What Doesn't Kill Us....

By nature, I look at just about everything around me as a potential story for life lessons and wisdom. The cat pictured above is my neighbor's outdoor cat.  The neighbor said she got him when she had had a mouse problem and thought he could keep them away.  I have two indoor cats and one of my cats is named Scout (although we seldom call him that....usually Fuzzball or Boy Kitty).  Our neighbor's cat....also named Scout.  Up until a couple months ago, outdoor Scout would be seen on occasion and would run away quickly.  At least that was my experience.  The closest I came to seeing him up close was when he was in my backyard and really wanted to meet my kitties inside.  I love cats and wanted to be friendly with outdoor Scout.  He just seemed skiddish. Several weeks back, outdoor Scout was attacked by a bigger wild cat (which my neighbor successfully trapped and released into a woodsy area far away from our neighborhood).  Now, outdoor Scout was taken to the vet and treated and is doing much better.  But here's what I noticed...he is not so skiddish anymore.  I see him more and more.  He seems to be more confident and proud.  In fact, he let me get closer and closer to him to take the photo....even rolled over and let me pet him: Now, maybe I am projecting my own thoughts and experiences into Scout's story.  But at any rate, I think it is a good story!  He didn't become more skiddish after being attacked, he became less....  He took his experience and seemed to let it make him stronger. In our lives, we sometimes get attacked.  Not always literally...  Of course, there are physical traumas that we sometimes experience.  But there are also times when people attack us with their words.  And then sometimes life just hits us hard...financial struggles, work struggles, family struggles....  Maybe we can learn from Scout to come back into our "neighborhood" (however we would interpret that for our situation) and be more confident.  It really depends on what we dealing with how that might look...but let's look in our situation and see what we might can see. Imagery is pretty powerful and so we can imagine that we are Scout, taking our place on the lawn, look around a little more relaxed...maybe even look for the moments when we can roll over and receive the love and "petting" from someone we used to run away from. What do you think?  Can you relate?  Do you use imagery?  Do you see life lessons all around you?